A Break from the Tea Pot!

Tee Hee ... I put the tea pot away! Today I used all Stampin' Up product ... and it's VERY funereal! But the challenge for today over on SCS was to use Basic Black in our card ~ I went a little overboard with the black ... but that WAS the challenge!

Recipe
Stamps : Bella Toile (BG), Ovall All
Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Ink : Basic Black
Accessories : Big Shot, Top Note Die, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Valet Ribbon Originals, Dimensionals, Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker

Sketch Challenge and More of the Tea Pot!

So apologies, today's sketch fit the tea pot set PERFECTLY ... so I couldn't NOT use it!!! Tee Hee! I promise to use something different tomorrow!!!! The sketch over on SCS (here) is a great one today and I love how the tea pot fit it so well!

Recipe
Stamps : Tea for Two, Papertrey Ink
Cardstock : Whisper White, Flock Together DSP, Choc Chip, Certainly Celery
Ink : Celery, Choc Chip
Accessories : 1 1/4", 1 3/8", Scallop Circle Punches; 1/4" grosgrain celery ribbon

A New Sketch

I keep seeing people using the Mojo Monday sketch ... so thought I'd find it for myself this week! If you ever need a starting point for a card, check them out! www.mojomonday.blogspot.com.

I need a few birthday cards for next week ... so I decided my new teapot set from Papertrey would fit nicely with the sketch ... and I think it turned out nicely!

Recipe
Stamps : PTI Tea for Two
Cardstock : Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Maine Blueberry DP
Ink : Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip
Accessories : Scallop Punch, 1 3/4" punch, dimensionals

A Classic CAS Card

Well, on Mondays we get two fantastic challenges on Splitcoast ~ Jen has started a CAS (Clean and Simple) challenge and today we had to make a CAS card using scraps of ribbon. I had to have a go, I love CAS cards ... so here's mine ~ there's really nothing to it!

And now my 2 challenges are done, I really should start on the laundry ... and some cleaning in the kitchen ... it was fun while it lasted!!!

Recipe
Stamps : Scene in a Garden
Cardstock : Whisper White, Night of Navy, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss
Ink : Choc Chip
Accessories : Ribbon, Markers

A new Technique and New Paptertrey!

Don't groan, I got my new PTI sets out again this morning! Lynn sets the most fantastic technique challenges over on SCS ... you really should try them out! I don't know where she gets all her interesting ideas, but keep them coming Lynn!

Today we were challenged to make a background by rolling marbles around in different re-inkers ... such a clever idea! I quite like how this looks ... even if it is a little 'messy' for my usual style ... sometimes messy can be good (although not in my kitchen!)

Recipe

Stamps : Papertrey 'Scattered Showers'
Cardstock : Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss
Ink : Choc Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
Accessories : Round Beads, Re-inkers (Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red), Scallop Edge Punch, RHR Taffeta Ribbon, Piercer, Dimensionals, Stickles

New Papertrey Goodies

Wahoo, I got to stamp today! Phew, it's been so long since I just stamped for fun ... but today I managed to grab a couple of hours to play with my new sets from Papertrey Ink. Love them!

These 2 cards are using the new set "Tea For Two" ... anyone who knows me, knows that I am totally addicted to Yorkshire Tea and drink it continuously during waking hours (well, English you know!). So this set is just perfect (thanks Vicki for the gift certificate!) ~ Vicki is getting the card on the left!
And this set is called "Scattered Showers" ... and I love this one too! I used the sentiment from "It's a Celebration" because it fitted along the bottom nicely ... and this one is going to my cousin Kate whose birthday is in a couple of weeks ... I shan't be caught by the week-long postage to England this time!

Retired Stampin' Up sets for Sale

I've spent the last couple of days putting together a list of retired Stampin' Up sets I'd like to sell. Wow, that took some work ~ I've put photos of the sets along with the cost and name of the set ... a labour of love! The link is on the right hand side tool bar so please have a peruse and comment here, or e:mail me if you see something you'd like! Hopefully tomorrow I will actually make something to post! Mum is waiting for me to make a 50th Wedding Anniversary card for some friends of hers and dads ~ that can be tomorrow's project mum! I know she thinks I've forgotten!!!

Techniques #4 : Preview/2

I finished my samples for my upcoming 8th/9th May techniques class and thought you might like to see them. This ice-cream card is so fun and easy to make (thanks to Angie Juda for the inspiration!).

... and here's a labour of love! I spent FOREVER perfecting this hinged scallop circle card! I think it's quite unique and not too hard to pull together once you've ironed out the steps! So if you like what you see, and you live near enough to come along and join us, I'd love to see you! Leave a comment if you would like more details.

It's raining HARD in Farmington Hills this morning, so I'm skipping down to the basement to sort through my retired stamp sets. A 'for sale' list will be avaialble later this week, if I can get myself motivated to FINISH!

Techniques Class #4 ~ Preview

Morning! I wanted to show you one of the cards which will be taught during my upcoming May Techniques #4 Class. Isn't it clever? My good friend Michelle Goodrich made a wonderful swap card for our SCS MI Mingle in March and very kindly gave us directions (thanks Michelle!). Then I spotted Lynn's card here and decided I just had to make one too! Thanks Lynn and Michelle for the inspiration!

There are 2 class dates in May, Friday 8th May at 7pm and Saturday 9th May at 10.30am. If you're on my e:mail list, the information will be out shortly!

Recipe
Stamps : Flight of the Butterly, 'friends' from Friends 24-7
Cardstock : Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, KK Designer Paper, Very Vanilla
Ink : Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories : Scor-Pal, Stamp-a-Majig

A Surprise Wedding

I went to have my teeth cleaned yesterday and during the conversation (although you can't have much of a 2-way conversation when your mouth's rammed open with instruments & a mirror in there!!!!) my hygenist told me that she'd been married in February in SECRET! How fun is that?! Anyway, I'm taking Sarah there on Thursday for her turn in the chair and I wanted to take along a card to mark the occasion! This is what I came up with:

This is the card closed

This is the card standing open

... and here it is fully open with the sentiment revealed on the inside.

If you'd like a copy of my double-gate fold tutorial, just leave a comment and I'll send one to you!

Recipe
Stamps : Happily Ever After
Cardstock : Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Candy Lane DSP
Ink : Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories : Scor Pal, Stamp-a-Majig

The Power of the CAN

Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your Easter Sunday. It was beautiful here in Michigan, Sarah and Roy ended up working on a wood-work project on the deck (after a trip to Sears to buy a jigsaw!). All I wanted to do was stamp yesterday ... but Roy kept pestering me to go to Sears with him & Sarah to get the jigsaw ... he wasn't sure how much money to spend etc. etc. ... so after much pouting from me I ended up going with them. I got my revenge though, I spotted the Kenmore grills were on sale AND they were offering 12 months interest free credit ... bargain! So Roy spent the rest of the day wishing he'd left me at home because the $40 jigsaw ended up costing a whole lot more than that ~ that'll teach him!

I managed to get my stamping in early today ... Lynn Mercurio keeps coming up with the most FUN techniques on Mondays over at SCS. Today she challenged us to use fizzy pop cans! Yes, you can do that! Amazing isn't it? I rinsed out a Red Bull can (which I found on the side of the road at the school bus-stop this morning!), cut it apart with my craft scissors, rinsed it out and ran it through the Big Shot twice, once with the Butterflies die and the 2nd time with a texturz plate. I love how it turned out!

Recipe
Stamps : Fundamental Phrases
Cardstock : PTI Midnight Shimmer, Blush Blossom, Very Vanilla
Ink : Night of Navy
Accessories : Red Bull Can, PTI Silver Ribbon, SU Punches, eyelet border, 2 ovals, Big Shot, Texturz Plate, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die

I've been working on this for a couple of days and wanted to share it with you. It's an address book with a section at the back of 'dates to remember'. At the MI Mingle, I won a door prize made by Ann Fitton which was one of these books ... I loved it so much I asked her how she'd made it and decided to have a go myself.

Here's a photo of the inside front and inside back. There are pockets for envelopes and postage stamps! Love it!

I will be offering this as a class so e:mail me if you're interested. If you're on my e:mail list, I'll be sending out details shortly.

Recipe
Cardstock : Parisian Birds DSP, Bordering Blue, Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana, Vellum
Ink : Chocolate Chip
Stamps : Friends 24-7
Accessories : SU Art Journal, Big Shot, Sizzix Oval Die, Sizzix Scallop Envelope Die, Eyelet Border Punch, Glue, Grosgrain Ribbon, Blender Pen, Brads

Techniques Class & a Hedgehog!

First of all I wanted to share a photo of the projects we'll be working on this weekend at my third techniques class. This is going to be a fun one! Less people are coming than usual (I'm hoping that's because of Easter, not because the class stinks!!!) so it'll be a little more relaxed for me! Anyway, I thought you'd like to see what we'll be making. From the front, a stair-step fold card, a reflections card (this one makes a particularly good masculine card) and finally a double-gate fold card. I really like these so am hoping everyone else does. If you'd like to come along on Friday evening, or Saturday I still have a couple of spots open :)

And then there's the hedgehog! Sarah took this photo of him curled up in her hand. I must say, she adores him ... and he's bonded to her. Whenever I get close, he curls up and kind of 'huffs' at me ... very cute but he's a one-girl hedgie! Just thought you'd like to see him!

Not MORE snow

I could hardly believe my eyes yesterday morning, we woke up to 3" of SNOW! I've really had enough of the Christmassy White Stuff now! And then this morning we've had another dusting ~ blech! So what a treat to be able to make a spring flower pot to take my mind of all that white stuff! Lynn found some great directions for us over on Splitcoast. I'll have to give you the link later, right now Splitcoast is down (horrors!). It's so easy to do, the flower pot is tied shut with a piece of ribbon and then the flowers are stuck onto a piece of cardstock which slides down into the pot as in photo 2.

Recipe
Stamps : Fundamental Phrases (For You)
Cardstock : Really Rust (Pot), Delicate Dots DSP and other scraps for the flowers
Ink : Choc Chip
Accessories : Kiwi Kiss Ribbon, Scallop Edge, Dew Drops, Oval Punches, Big Shot, Cuttlebug Flower Dies. Leaves Die, 1/2 Pearls, Micro Beads & Crystal Effects.

A little Thank You

My Secret Sister (or not-so-secret sister actually) from the SCS MI Mingle gave me a really generous gift certificate for Papertrey Ink ... how exciting is THAT! I'm waiting for the April release to see what's new but if nothing appeals then I'm going to treat myself to Dawn McVey's set called 'Damask Designs', it's really beautiful. So as a 'thank you' I made this card for Vicki ... she's been a great Secret Sis and I love everything she sent me over the last few months ~ thanks Vicki YOU ROCK!

Recipe
Stamps : Cheep Talk
Cardstock : Baja Breeze, Choc Chip, Whisper White
Ink : Choc Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze
Accessories : Big Shot & Scallop Circle Die; Kiwi Kiss Ribbon; Dazzling Diamonds; Paper Piercer

As the SU Mini Catalogue goes live, so does a new promotion called 'Get Connected'. For every $40 you spend in the new mini catalogue, you get to choose any item on the 'Under $10' page at the end of the Spring/Summer '09 Catalogue! What a great promotion! Also, if you are the hostess of a qualifying workshop ($150 in sales) you will also get to choose from the 'Under $10' page.

Let me know if you'd like to have a fun evening with your girlfriends, stamping and seeing what's new from SU ... and get free merchandise at the same time!

SCS Colour Combo and Sketch

Phew, I'm just trying to catch my tail this week ... I don't even know WHY! But I wanted to take 5 mins to share a card I made yesterday for the colour challenge and the sketch challenge over on splitcoast. It's a quick and easy one to do and I really like how it turned out!

Recipe
Stamps : Simple Friendship
Cardstock : Bella Rose DSP, V Vanilla, Choc Chip
Ink : Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories : Choc Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Fleurette, 1/2 Pearl (Pretties Kit) & Ticket Corner Punch

I'm WICKED!

Tee Hee. For those of you that know me personally ... that should make you chuckle! But I am WICKED this month because I've been asked to host the WICKED challenges over on the Demo side of Splitcoast. I know that not all of you are SU demonstrators, and therefore haven't got access to my challenges ~ so I thought I'd post them here in case YOU would like to play along! It's so thrilling to be asked to do this on SCS and I'm just praying that some people actually participate! Anyway, here are the challenges I set. The demos have the whole month to create a SU only card, or project and to load it to the WICKED gallery. WICKED stands for Wonderfully Inspiring Challenges Keep Educating Demos!

Challenge #1 ~ Colour Challenge
Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip
Here's my Sample:

Challenge #2 ~ Use It Challenge
Use any SU Floral embellishment on your card or project
Here's my Sample:

Challenge #3 ~ Sketch
Here's my sketch and my sample:

Card #1 : Bella Rose Stamp Set, BG is the Damask Stamp from Friends 24-7
Card #2 : The Daisies #2 Die made from Pink Pirouette DSP and the outside of the Top Note Die
Card #3 : Cheep Talk Stamp Set and Good Morning Sunshine DSP. Scallop Circle Die and Big Shot and the Circle Scissor Plus for the 2 inside layers.

SCS MI Mingle 2009

Last weekend was the Splitcoast MI Mingle ... we spent Friday evening and Saturday at a hotel & conference centre in Bay City stamping, chatting & mingling! It was just such fun to meet up with old friends and to make some new ones too ... I'm now looking forward to next year when we can do it all over again!!!

Here's me and Michele (Plaid Pony on SCS) loading up the car. We live fairly close to each other so we shared the drive! We also had stuff loaded onto the back seats ... so you could say we had enough STUFF to stamp with!!!

... and here we are hard at work making the Coordinator Challenge Cards ... what a blast that was! From the left: Debra (debra); Robin (mzRobin); Roxie (morgainegeiser) (sitting at the back); Michelle (CMUGrad) (looking at the camera); Me; Jill (nenimlasj) (you can just see the top of her head peeping past Michelle); Michelle (MichelleGoodrich); Michele (Plaid Pony).

and here's one of my faves ... Standing: Robin (mzRobin); Rachel (Hillmangirl); Seated Me; Michele (Plaid Pony).

Happy Memories of a wonderful weekend away full of stamping, chatting and late nights! ... and the odd Pudding Shot or 2!! Well, maybe 3 ... was it 3? Ask Kim!